Stricklin: College football could use a central leader
UF athletics director Scott Stricklin said college football could use someone in charge.
The big decisions made by the NBA, Major League Baseball and other sports amid the coronavirus pandemic have been steered by powerful commissioners weighing input from advisers and medical staff. They have presented a narrow list of options to team owners and players unions, pushing forward with a singular voice after reaching a consensus.
College football leaves these high-stakes calls up to those in charge of each individual conference, totaling 10 at the FBS level and many more at the lower divisions. The Big Ten, the biggest money-maker of them all, announced plans last week to pursue a conference only schedule in the fall, leading the Pac-12 to follow suit a day later.
Those moves blindsided their Power 5 brethren from the SEC, ACC and Big 12 and further exposed the need for a single body setting the course for all.
“In a perfect world, I think the Autonomy 5 have done a really good job of trying to make decisions in concert, and in a perfect world, that would have happened,” Stricklin said during a videoconference Tuesday. “I haven’t talked to anybody in the Big Ten. I don’t know why, I don’t know what led to their decision, but I do think it’s helpful when we can try as much as possible to make decisions in concert.
“But part of that is, college athletics, as another example, is not pro sports. We don’t have a centralized governing body in areas like this.”
The NCAA is the governing body of college athletics and runs the championships for every sport except football.
“We have the NCAA, but as far as decisions that conferences make, it’s more of a Federalist system,” Stricklin said. “In some ways, it’s more American, right? We have all these different parts of the country that decided their own direction they’re going to go.”
The setup has allowed the top college football conferences to set the agenda and reap many of the rewards from decisions, including the formation of the College Football Playoff.
Stricklin is in his third and final year on the 13-member playoff committee. During the pandemic, he has participated in UF board of trustees meetings and Monday’s
SEC meetings at the league’s home office in Birmingham, Alabama.
Since the March 13 shutdown of athletics began, Stricklin has spearheaded endless discussions within his department, whose operating budget of $161 million is one of the nation’s largest and heavily dependent on the college football season.
Such uncertain, anxious times explain the Big Ten’s decision to move to a conference only schedule while exposing the need for a uniform plan among conferences.
“We obviously [have worked] together in normal times to come up with the CFP, and that’s obviously been highly successful,” Stricklin said. “And we work well in other areas, you know cost-of-attendance, the stipend that went into effect that we’re giving thousands of dollars a year to our athletes on an individual basis, that was the Autonomy 5 leagues coming together and making that decision.
“So, I do think when we can work in concert, it can be really helpful, and it’s, we’re not in normal times. That probably speaks to why it didn’t happen in this case.”
What the SEC’s next move will be determined during the coming weeks as cases of COVID-19 continue to spike throughout the region.
The Ivy and Patriot leagues already have decided not to play fall sports and have not yet decided whether the sports could be staged in the spring. However, they do not rely on the tidal wave of revenue earned by major college football programs.
The Gators generated nearly $48 million in football, according to the school’s yearend report filed to the NCAA.
Bracing for the financial impact ahead, Florida State last weekend announced a 20% cut in athletic department spending, cutting staff pay and eliminating 25 jobs.
Stricklin said he has not had to cut salaries or lay off staff, but he cannot predict whether that will change. Even if someone was charge of college football, those difficult choices would fall on the shoulders of the 50-year-old athletics director.
“Once we have a better idea of what our actual competition schedule might look like, we might be in a better position to try to make some of those decisions,” Stricklin said. “But right now I think it’d be speculative on our part.”